Markets Wired

A one-day “back to basics” workshop on complying with truth-in-advertising laws is being presented on Tuesday, December 4, 2007, by the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr. Green Lights & Red Flags: Rules of the Road for Advertisers and Businesses features a roster of national experts discussing the latest developments in advertising law for attorneys, business owners, and marketing executives. The workshop is presented in cooperation with the Better Business Bureau of the Mid-South and the Tennessee Bar Association in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.

Topics to be examined at the workshop include:

• FTC Advertising Law: Understanding the Rules of the Road – Staying between the lines with ad claims, disclosures, and substantiation;
• Avoiding a Promotion Commotion – Complying with new standards for rebates, commercial email, contests, telemarketing, and other promotional practices;
• The Secure Entrepreneur: Data Security & Consumer Privacy – Best practices to avoid, assess, and address a data security breach;
• Keeping Your Client Compliant – Adding a dose of prevention by improving the lines of communication between attorneys and business clients
• If the Government Comes to Call – Business practices likely to raise red flags with law enforcers; and
• When Your Competitor Crosses the Line – Self-regulation or litigation? Weighing the options when a competitor’s ads are deceptive.

Green Lights & Red Flags will be held at the First Tennessee Auditorium, 165 Madison Street, M Level, in Memphis, Tennessee, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The admission fee of $100 includes lunch and a CD of all workshop materials. The sponsors have applied for 3.5 hours of general Tennessee CLE credit and one hour of ethics and professionalism credit. To register, visit www.tennbaru.com or call (800) 899-6993.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.